The Faithful Departed
by Kiwikatipo
Summary: The Departed XO: After NFA, Angel now human and with visions that will kill him eventually, moves to Boston to help Faith stay on the straight and narrow. Gangsters, family issues and insane vampires abound in this story.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I DO NOT OWN all recognizable characters and situations they belong to their respective owners and I make no profit off of this. Joss Whedon created Angel and Faith et al. William Monahan created Dignam etc.

**Warning:** Very frequent coarse, racist and homophobic language.  
**Timeline: **Angel post Not Fade Away, The Departed Pre and during movie

OUTSKIRTS OF BOSTON, FEBRUARY 1996

Massachusetts State Trooper, Sean Dignam resolved never to eat doughnuts on the job. Aged twenty-four, two years out of the training academy in New Braintree his physical fitness remained high unlike his older partner Derek Finnegan. The two men sat drinking foul coffee in their police car parked undercover beneath trees by the main highway.

"This Strategy to Prevent Youth Violence? The little wanna be Crips and Bloods gang bangers were shootin' each other… if the B.P.D. gets the little fucks gun possession rate down…?" Finnegan swilled his heavily sugared coffee around in his mouth. He plucked at the belt uncomfortably constricting his burgeoning paunch contained in its blue uniform. "Are you fuckin' gettin' what I'm sayin'?"

"Yeah, kill nits so you don't get fuckin' lice, I'm hearin' yah, I ain't deaf, impressed by yah genius deductions but not fuckin' deaf." Dignam heard and spouted back shit every day following the glorious career path of most the male members of his family.

A battered Buick filled with teenagers sped past them going twenty miles over the speed limit on the icy highway.

Sitting in the back seat of the Buick, fresh out of foster care and back under her mother's careful and loving guidance, fifteen year old Faith Lehane resolved never to ingest psilocybin containing fungi again. Shrooms tasted okay, if consumed in the middle of a peanut and jelly sandwich, but last week for the first time Faith freaked out, it wasn't like she found God more like the Devil, horror show visions of Dracula and shit. The whole downer of an experience left her with a pounding headache for a day afterward too. Maybe Faith was becoming allergic to magic mushrooms or something. Good thing Mom always kept a handy supply of pain killers if not food in the top kitchen cupboard in slum sweet slum.

Although Mom recently pulled her act together to a surprising extent, Faith optimistically gave her mother three months before she fell off the wagon again.

Mommie dearest went apeshit at Faith for trying to go out with her boyfriend Ronnie tonight, Faith needed to sneak out her third story bedroom window to keep the peace. The athletic feat paid off. For here Faith was - enjoying this nice drive in the country, sort of. She was kind of squashed sitting in between Ronnie and his fat friend Mike. She couldn't see much.

Hmm, Faith took another gulp from her can of beer, could she hear a siren?

"Fuck, Staties!" The driver of Faith's vehicle redoubled his speed.

Dignam always enjoyed hot pursuits and sure enough the Buick's plates came up as stolen. Some bleeding hearts complained law enforcement officers pursuing joy-riders resulted in too many deaths. If the retards that drove the vehicles fucking pulled over in the first place there wouldn't be any, would there?

And speaking of impending deaths the Buick was taking the corner too fast, breaking through the roadside guard rail and flying straight into the nearby river.

The car remained afloat for two precious minutes, the hood of the car pointing downwards due to the weight of the engine, the front and back seat occupants were unable to open the car doors because of the water pressure. Ronnie successfully wound down the car window beside him and struggled out, yelling at Faith to follow him. Faith was a wicked good swimmer. Her escape however became impeded by Mike clutching onto her leg in panic as the car submerged. She successfully landed a hard kick into his face causing him to release her. She groped her way in the murky darkness towards the open window Ronnie escaped through, pushing herself off the car door and fighting her way to the surface of the river.

Her denim jacket, wool sweater, jeans and chunky boots hindered Faith's swimming ability, the winter garments weighed her down and the river's strong current fought against her. She panicked, choking in a lungful of freezing muddy water, going under.

A strong arm reached down and grabbed her floating long hair, pulling her up to the surface so she could breathe beautiful, wonderful air. And that was how Trooper Sean Dignam saved high school student Faith Lehane's life.

_LANSDOWNE STREET, BOSTON, MAY 1998_

Faith didn't see why her watcher Diana couldn't swing her fake ID to get her actually freaking inside the venue the vamp was hanging out at in the nightclub district. Faith could have got hold of some new fake ID for herself easily – connections, baby. But Diana said Faith's previous life lay behind her and hanging out in the alley where a female vamp brought her recent victims would be sufficient.

Faith was glad her former existence stopped because lets face it, people, high school drop out, unemployed, living hand to mouth, virtually on the streets, Faith's life before she was discovered to be a potential three months ago, sucked.

In contrast her calling as a slayer rocked, Faith got off on being a superhero the past two weeks. Being a slayer was a career path no dweeb high school advisor ever suggested to her strangely and Faith was so damn good at it too. She guessed there were some occupations aptitude tests never fully covered.

The fire exit door opened, a skanky female vampire flounced out leading her enthralled male prey by his belt buckle.

Faith did a double take and recognized State Trooper Dignam, the heroic asshole who saved her from drowning two years ago. Ronnie and the other guys from the Buick booked it straight away leaving Faith to face the music alone. Dignam was her freaking hero for fifty-two minutes after he risked his own life to rescue her and repeatedly dived in the freezing river trying to save Mike who ended up being pulled from the river downstream dead the next day.

Dignam sadly proceeded to ruin the knightly deeds by listening to his lard ass partner recognizing Faith as 'one of those Lehane losers from the Southie projects, and this little sweetheart was gonna end up in juvie soon just like most of the dear folks of her fucked up family who were in and out of the state pens on steady rotate'.

"Sir? Screw you." Faith informed the tubby cop immediately perhaps not that intelligently looking back.

"I froze my balls off savin' shit like you? What a waste of my fuckin' time." Dignam roughly handed Faith over to the arriving ambulance crew. "Look after her, huh? The little bitch's had a hell of a shock."

So Faith never did get to thank Mr. 'Short for a Statie' properly. She even missed a golden opportunity to speak to him outside a courtroom where she'd been subpoenaed as a reluctant witness against Ronnie and crew; well this was her big chance tonight.

Faith strutted up to the feasting vampire, tearing her off Dignam's neck. Okay, maybe Faith prepared to show off just a little, she enjoyed prolonging the kill and engaging in battle with vamps, something Diana often fretted about. But Diana wasn't here, the nice old broad suffered from a bad head cold causing Faith to tell her English watcher to wait in the car.

Staking vampires blew Faith's mind it was such a freaking buzz. She roundhouse kicked, punched, leaped, spun and ignored Dignam's repeated shouted instructions to break it up or he'd fire.

"Bullets don't work on the undead, douche, so yah gonna have to put your dick extension away." Faith intended to thank Dignam practically by life saving repayment, not by fancy words or nothing he was still an asshole Statie who dressed up like a Nazi by day. She backed the vampire against the wall and staked the fanged bitch hard. The vampire exploded in a customary gratifying dust cloud. Faith loved the way they did that.

And that was how Faith the Vampire Slayer saved Trooper First Class Sean Dignam's life.

"How the fuck did you…?" Dignam ascertained pretty early on in the piece a vampire attacked him - he'd heard things, it was part of the reason he was in the club but he didn't expect some type of fucking smart mouthed angel to come to his aid and she looked vaguely familiar. He tried to staunch his bleeding neck wound. "Faith Lehane?"

"Yeah, that's right." Faith liked to be remembered, to make an impact on guys and Faith did not look like a drowned rat this evening or the urban underclass, on the contrary in her brand new leather pants paid for by an indulgent grandmotherly Diana, Faith looked freaking hot. Thank Christ slayers didn't need to wear lame spandex leotards like Super-girl – camel toe city. On the other hand Faith needed a cool superhero exit line, after which Faith intended to go back to Diana's, eat and call up her boyfriend Kenny to take care of her rampant horniness.

Faith was real turned on mysteriously and for someone probably a decade older than her and with sad taste in clothes (brown? he shouldn't wear those colors with green eyes and dark brown hair) the muscular five foot-eight Dignam seemed Johnny Depp-like at this moment. So Faith decided not to say anything, she locked eyes with him, leaning towards him slowly.

Dignam's mind (busy working overtime processing the fact vampires were real) let his body respond to the hungry expression in Faith's eyes. Dignam's body decided that he narrowly escaped death without passing on replicating DNA into the human gene pool and this sad state of affairs needed to be rectified immediately with the fertile looking female in front of him.

The unexpected lip melding, messy wet kiss proved to be very pleasant for both parties, for the briefest second it seemed certain they would end up screwing against the wall.

But Faith who didn't understand what the hell had got into her - she was completely into her musician boyfriend and hated cops, and Dignam whose privately career ambitious kill-joy gray brain cells started to scream. 'Minor Alert! Minor Alert! Stop thinking with your fucking wiener and start thinking with me again!' reluctantly disengaged themselves.

Faith turned her back and walked abruptly away. Shit. How freaking bizarre.

Dignam stared bewildered after her, what a fucking weird night "Hey, Faith!" he yelled at the girl's retreating back. "Thanks, bitch!" He owned fucking manners at least.

_SAN FRANCISCO MAY 2003_

Robin Wood if extremely careful with himself could walk around his hospital room unaided although the action quickly tired him, he settled back into bed manfully suppressing a wince – quickly pushing the button on his drip that administered him more morphine. He pricked his ears at the footsteps coming into his antiseptic living quarters for the past two days.

"Faith?" he queried, searching around trying to pinpoint her exact location.

"You got any other invisible visitors?" The chair beside the bed scraped along the floor as Faith positioned it so she could sit opposite him. She leaned forward and pulled the blanket back over him snugly.

"That still freaks me out in a non wuss way of course." Robin's eyes tracked his blanket seemingly floating in mid air for a second.

"Uh huh, if you say so, dude." Faith was real surprised at how glad she'd been over Robin remaining alive after the battle on the Hellmouth and how in spite of her aversion to hospitals she kept visiting him here.

"Novelty aside of watching you drink water how much longer are you planning on being transparent?" Robin rested his head on the pillows and turned his head towards the chair Faith's voice came from. "Willow and Giles come up with a plan yet to stop you going back to prison?"

"Yeah, Xander thought of all the finer details, got his mind off Anya." Faith crossed her legs. "There were two Faith Lehanes' ya see. Nadia - the slayer from Latvia who died this mornin', Willow put the spell on to make look like me, (we knew she wouldn't recover) she did the crap I pulled, her fingerprints are now on the official Californian records. I arrived in Sunnydale '98 after the death of my Watcher, became Giles ward seein' I was still legally a minor at the time and not only am I not an ex-con anymore I've got a Sunnydale High School Diploma comin' my way. Willow said she's gonna make sure the edges are burned." The Disney cartoon version of Faith's life, Xander dreamed up left everyone speechless and ashamed as to what could and should have been.

"So what've you been doing with yourself the past three years if you weren't in a coma or in prison?" Robin found the solution full of practical merit, Naida's family had been killed by the First Evil's Bringers last year they wouldn't miss their daughter's body.

Faith stretched her hands out in front of her, she could see herself even if others couldn't see her. "Long John Silver's idea again, I've been in Cleveland, Ohio workin' as a life guard in a public swimmin' pool. The Scooby-snacks are thinkin' about setting up a base there soon. Don't get me wrong – anythin's better than prison but I'm not gonna spend a second longer than I need to in 'the mistake by the lake'." Faith could see by Robin's grimace at the thought of life in the Midwest literal hellhole he wouldn't either.

And that was how the white witch Willow Rosenberg magically made the reformed rogue slayer's past completely respectable on paper.

_BOSTON APRIL 2004_

"Yeah? Fuck you and the Shetland pansy pony you rode in on, pal. I'm finished with your unit's X-files shit once and for all." Dignam placed his cell phone in his pocket and strode through the corridor to his office. Vampires fucking existed, werewolves fucking existed, demons fucking existed and Dignam got transferred from the secret department in the Massachusetts State Troopers that dealt with them in conjunction with the Boston Police Department five fucking years ago. Thank Jesus H. Christ he only dealt with murderous brutal human crime lords these days in the undercover division.

Dignam made sergeant and he should be staff sergeant due to his pristine record but his abrasive personality hampered his progress up the ranks. He wasn't married either – a family man got regarded more favorably for promotion. This frustrated him because he wanted fucking rug rats to play football with in the back yard of the triple decker wooden house in Dorchester he'd purchased last year as an investment and some sweet smiling wife to come home to who had his dinner waiting in the oven.

Dignam's ideal mate naturally was good looking, not some blue stocking bore but not so dumb she'd lose the kids in a shopping mall either, high spirited like his mom, a Catholic on paper only and not a regular church goer because he liked to lie in Sunday mornings when he got the chance, not listen to some faggot in a frock tell him how to run his life.

And that was when Sean Dignam determined to marry the next woman he came across that met these important specifications.

_BOSTON, MAY 2004_

Faith experienced a rude awakening in more ways than one. She lay naked beside Robin who came up from New York to visit her in her new apartment in Dorchester. They decided to call their relationship quits because they were too different for things to work between them any longer but the sex had always been good between them and they shared one last sweaty boink for the road the previous night.

So that explained why Robin's arm was around her as Faith woke up to the sun's morning rays in her bedroom, but who the hell did the bare back of the naked guy belong to on the other side of her?

Faith hadn't woken up to a situation like this since she was eighteen in Sunnydale.

Was the mystery man some sleeping beauty burglar? Goldilocks? Faith nudged him. The man turned over.

"Angel?"

"Faith?"

And that was when Faith and Angel first discovered he had been sent back to Earth by The Powers That Be after dying outside Wolfram and Hart in Los Angeles - sent back as a human.

Faith and Dignam's paths next crossed at their local grocery store.

Faith pushed her shopping carriage around the aisles gingerly, she'd taken a hell of a beating wiping out a nest of vampires the night before and her cracked ribs were in the process of mending. She wore sunglasses to cover her black eye.

"So yah nigger boyfriend knockin' you round or are you still staking vampires?" Dignam passed her down the discounted dried apricot packet she'd been reaching for. "I saw you together comin' out of the pub last week."

"The guy's my ex, he never hit me and I guess affirmative action must be workin' out real well for you." Faith tossed the apricot packet in her grocery carriage.

"Hey it seems fuckin' unfair on the surface, Blacks being eleven percent of the Staties when they're only six percent of the Greater Boston population but they commit half of the crime so it evens out. I've got no problem with it, I'm fuckin' sensitive like that." Dignam explained displaying his liberal side.

"Yeah? And here I was thinkin' you were only a prick." Faith pushed her carriage away towards the frozen food section. Angel jonesed for ice-cream something chronic.

"And here I was thinkin' you'd be dead or inside by now." Dignam remained beside her.

"You think? Yah far more multi-talented than you first come across." Faith scooped up the ice-cream.

"Why are you back in the fuckin' Hub of the Universe?" Dignam performed a quick background check on her after he spotted her last week and couldn't work out why she returned to Boston, none of her immediate family remained alive.

"I got all misty eyed missin' the potholes." Faith made her way to the check-out, Dignam followed her. "If you want me to answer any more retarded questions yah out of luck."

"Maybe, maybe not." Dignam smiled at her cheerfully. "I could make some trumped up excuse and haul you in for questionin' or you could have coffee with me this afternoon."

"Why not ask me to blow you while yah about it?" Faith handed over her money to the check out operator. "You buy me a drink tonight and I'll explain how fuckin' blackmailin' me's gonna hurt you more than me."

And that was how Faith and Dignam's first date came about.

"Do you still stick your tongue down's guys' throats after savin' their lives from vampires?" Dignam asked her as they shared their third drink together in the neighborhood bar that evening.

Faith matched his smirk in remembrance. "As you put it, maybe, maybe not. Are you an asshole 24/7?"

"23/6." Neither of them dressed up to meet each other, they were still clothed in grocery shopping clothes of the earlier Sunday morning. Dignam sat opposite her at their small table and felt relieved her black eye no longer bloomed prominently on her face.

"I'm one of the nicest guys you could meet. I always check with suspects if they wanna get hit with the white pages or yellow pages before I start beatin' them up in interrogation rooms for example. Mr. Fuckin' Consideration For Others - that's me." Dignam folded his arms, he either postured intimidatingly, or closed himself off in body language.

Faith appreciated the guy's lack of falseness and his hometown humor. Californian men were so unnervingly touchy feely or fake. Cleveland males were deficient. Dignam was a Statie, therefore as a Lehane she should rightfully hate his very guts but she didn't.

Dignam's brain followed the same pathways as Faith's. She came from scum, she was part of the supernatural world he wished to have no dealing with what so ever - he liked her.

And that was when Faith and Dignam started to fall in love with one another.

OOOOO

AN: How do I know Dignam's first name is Sean? William Monahan said so in an interview.


	2. Chapter 2

DORCHESTER, BOSTON MAY 2004

_Bob, and Carol and Ted and Alice_ - not that Faith and her indignant partner would be familiar with the late sixties movie and its group bed scene. But the movie's set-up resembled how Angel found his first shot at being a human again since being infected with Mohra demon blood.

Angel would have felt more at ease if the only clothing on offer in Faith's apartment hadn't been a red satin kimono that only came up to mid thigh on him. Robin was too narrow in the waist for his spare clothing to be of any good to Angel. The kimono didn't fit well and Angel's appearance mattered to him.

"Can I just ask what the hell are you doin' here, in my apartment, naked as a jay-bird and with a freakin' pulse?" Faith clad in quickly pulled on clothes lying on the floor from the night before, automatically searched for a cigarette inside the Morley's packet she'd left on the dining table in her tiny living room.

Angel reached across for one too. He always did smoke on and off under stress. "I don't know. One minute an overgrown lizard's breathing fire over me - the next I'm in your bed alive."

"Well shit, yah human. Let's hear it for the good guys – you Sanshued." Faith tolerantly let Angel light her cigarette for her. His manners were so old fashioned sometimes.

"He Shan what?" A hastily dressed unshaven Robin needed to be filled in on the prophecy. "What about that peroxide killer that murdered my mother, don't tell me he got rewarded too?"

"Spike?" Angel sincerely hoped not. So Robin couldn't stand Spike, Faith's tastes in guys must have improved since Sunnydale.

Being clothed in fashionable attire once more thanks to Faith's credit card getting a quick Saturday mid-morning work out didn't console Angel in the slightest after Faith got off the phone to Giles that evening.

It was easy for Faith to fake concern over the message Angel left on her answer phone the previous night - urging Faith never to give up her quest for redemption. She inquired what the hell happened in L.A. Giles didn't need to know Angel became human yet, if ever.

Angel didn't want Giles to know anything about him after the man's refusal to help Fred and Buffy could go jump in a lake for the same reason. Buffy could go jump in a lake for another reason too.

"Well that's great; Spike wakes up in bed with Buffy. I was over her." Angel announced pettily to a skeptical Robin and Faith. "I was dating someone else anyway."

Robin couldn't believe how socially immature the guy was, "In that case why didn't you wake up between Nina's sheets - is Faith a slayer consolation prize?" Robin still didn't get why the hell Angel woke up in bed in his birthday suit with Robin's ex-girlfriend and dear God – him.

Faith realized again why she and Robin were over. She felt kind of bummed about hearing how Wesley died; she didn't ever need to hear dumb (or maybe true) shit like she came second best to B. on top of sad news.

Faith honestly didn't think she qualified to be part of Angel's human prize package. Apart from being her moral savior Angel was sort of her friend after his prison visits to her, one of the few true friends she'd ever had. There was an attraction between them more on her side than his sadly but they'd never seen each other naked until this morning. She admired his gryphon tattoo come to think of it, considering he'd got it done in the eighteenth century the ink held up well.

Angel always appreciated Faith's breasts when they were on display and her mean right hook but he preferred blondes. He omitted to tell Buffy the full truth about a lot of things in Sunnydale. Firstly and foremost as a young man in Ireland, Liam liked whores for bedding and ladies for courting. Buffy fell into the modern category of a lady, that's why Angel fell in love with her and later Cordelia. Secondly he knew his love for part demon Cordelia had been far healthier than his obsession with Buffy.

The way Buffy kept harping on about their past relationship irritated him when he came to Sunnydale twelve months ago to drop off the amulet to her. Angel was far more interested in hearing about how Spike achieved soul status, and far more worried he'd done the right thing with Connor, than rehashing some sick love affair between a three hundred year old vampire and a teenage slayer. Ironic seeing how helping Buffy fight an apocalypse was the reason he refused his chance at being human the first time around.

Angel only went on his wild goose chase to Rome because he hated The Immortal, not because he still loved Buffy. Well that's what he better start telling himself because Spike landed Buffy. Spike! Fine then.

Angel couldn't work out why the hell he was in Boston either. He'd signed his shot at being human away to bring down The Circle of the Black Thorn so why was he back as well as Spike and why with Faith?

"Maybe I'm meant to protect you not screw you." Faith decided in the end impulsively, stubbing out a cigarette firmly in the ash-tray in platonic emphasis. "Wolfram and Hart must still want you dead and yah helpless as a kitten up a tree like all human males against vamps."

Robin spluttered in his coffee indignantly, how pray tell did one account for the numerous vampires he took out independently? Robin realized anew why he and the tactless Faith were definitely over.

Angel got his first big clue as to the reason behind his newly acquired breather status as he traveled on a Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority train to a job interview as a dish washer. Cash flow problems were already presenting themselves, there were things he needed as a human in the twenty-first century that hadn't been a problem for him as a vampire - deodorant for example. He couldn't sponge off Faith indefinitely; he was developing a crick in his neck from sleeping on her sofa for the past two days.

The train carriage Angel boarded in Dorchester didn't have many passengers thankfully. So there weren't many witnesses to what happened to him. One minute he was staring at the subway map on the wall, hoping Connor was safe wherever his son disappeared to ground, the next moment Angel cradled his head in his hands yelping like a dog with the pain of his blinding vision.

God, how did Doyle and Cordelia stand them? Angel fell to his knees with the unexpected pain, the disorientating scene before his eyes turned his stomach.

"You alright, son?" An elderly man was helping him up to his feet.

"I need a public phone." Angel lurched out the sliding doors as the train stopped at the next station and called Faith at her job as a life guard in the Dorchester YMCA.

"I've had a vision, that werewolf you're planning to track tonight; he bites you on the right arm. You'll turn into a werewolf too if that happens. Not that being a werewolf is bad necessarily." Angel soothed, panting slightly from the shock of his vision. "Yeah, it looks like I've been touched with the sight." Angel mistakenly thought Cordelia only passed him on a one off vision to bring down the Circle of the Black Thorn but might have he received the whole deluxe deal - including his brain exploding from the inside out in three years time?

Faith happily dragged Angel along with her to capture the feral werewolf, Angel possessed mad fighting skills she was sure. She first intended to kill dog boy and have done with it but Angel pricked her conscience about the lunar furry guy deserving a chance to get himself a cage installed in his Cambridge condo.

Angel almost landed up getting mauled in the struggle to sedate the werewolf. Faith told him immediately not to trouble himself accompanying her anymore, the visions were help enough – really, dude.

Angel felt very emasculated. He could tell Faith made a token effort not to hurt his feelings about banning him from her supernatural seek and destroy hunts. She failed.

Angel struggled to look on the bright side - with the visions he could still fight the good fight.

Except Angel didn't get any more visions' for weeks, not a one, not even the vision that would have prevented him staying out of a hospital.

JUNE, BOSTON 2004

Christina Aguilera played over the loud speakers in the coffee house kitchen where Angel submerged his reddened hands in warm soapy water and scrubbed at the dirty pots. Angel didn't have a social security number, Angel didn't have a G.E.D., Angel didn't have a passport to return to Ireland where he thought he might quite like to go to see the sea off the Galway Coast sparkling in the sunlight. Angel couldn't use magic to get identification in case Wolfram and Hart found out about him. He was an unqualified twenty-six year old human male in a world where ID ruled and had been extremely fortunate to get hold of this cash under the table job.

There was no way he could afford to move out of Faith's apartment just yet. Angel couldn't see short of robbing a bank how he could afford his own place in months. Faith suggested akwardly the previous night maybe they should look for a two bedroom apartment together.

Angel brooded over being a charity case, he was meant to be a champion.

"To be sure yah a champion at dish-washin', sport." The middle aged woman who ran the coffee house patted him approvingly on the shoulder as she came in to place an order with the cook out the back.

Oh god.

Maybe the desire to be a hero ran too strong in him, Angel still didn't understand why he finally got to be a human. He had a lot to atone for – the responsibility for Fred's, Wesley and presumably Gunn's deaths lay at his door. And Lindsay too, although who gave a crap about that Texan bastard? Not Angel. But Angel should not have engineered Lorne murdering him. Should Angel feel guilty over Lorne's drinking problem? Yes, Angel should take that on board his burdened shoulders as well.

As Angel trudged home depressed that early evening from the train station, fretting over the evil he endorsed over the past twelve months, he spotted a young man struggling with a teenage girl trying to push her into a small blue Honda. She was blonde.

"Help!" the girl screamed out to the twilight sky imploringly. "Somebody help!"

Angel raced over to the struggling couple preparing to be a Good Samaritan.

"Driving a Japanese import making you act out your pain on others?" Angel pulled the heavy-set guy off the girl roughly.

"Mind your own frickin' business, dick." The young man spat at Angel incensed. "She's my kid sister and she's run away from home!"

There was a certain family resemblance now Angel could see them both closely.

"Maybe she doesn't want to go home." Angel pronounced sternly to the youth pulling his arm back.

"She's on drugs! She don't know what she wants. Fuck off!" The young man twisted around, landing a dazing blow on Angel's jutting forehead.

Angel always liked a good brawl both as a vampire and as a human. But crap, the girl did indeed seem high on something. In fact now she was sitting voluntarily in the front seat of the car, singing the theme tune to _Friends_ and giggling to herself. Whoops.

"I was… trying to help." Angel held his hands up in appeasement, backing away feeling a complete moron.

"Like I said, just buzz off." The guy repeated in exasperation, calming down.

Angel took a further step backwards off the side walk and got bowled over by a passing car. Wearing black all the time made him hard to see in the fading light.

The hit and run driver of the car didn't stop and the big brother of the teen runaway ended up calling for an ambulance.

Angel sat in the wheelchair discharged and waiting patiently for Faith to collect him after she finished paying for his treatment at the reception desk. He apparently interrupted a big date for her, because Faith's outfit suggested seduction was on the menu as well as soup of the day.

"A broken leg and arm, shit." Faith frowned at his collateral bodily damage then cheered up. "Want me to write somethin' dirty on the plaster?"

"Bite me." Angel scowled at her suspiciously. "How did you manage to wrangle my ID?" Thank god she had in the nick of time, otherwise the Boston Medical Center seemed on the verge of contacting Homeland Security about his identificationless state. And he didn't have health insurance. Hell, he now owed Faith even more money.

"I told you I was workin' on it." She lowered her voice and began to wheel him over to the elevators. "No magic. I finally got in contact with one of my Mom's ex-boyfriends. He's I.R.A. The commie bastard came out here twenty years ago on the run and specializes in fake identities to finance his drinkin' habit now, seeing how the Glorious Struggle sorta ended in '97."

"You know about Irish history?" Angel blinked, surprised. Faith's general knowledge was appalling in most areas. He wouldn't have been surprised if she couldn't locate Ireland on a map of the world.

"Who the hell doesn't in this city?" Faith sighed resignedly, pushing Angel carefully through the elevator doors. "We're in luck, this guy I was havin' dinner with is gonna drive us home."

"Who is he?" Angel tried to make small talk with customary effort.

"Uh he's called Sean Dignam. He's a Statie." Faith didn't seem to believe her date's occupation herself. "He's not exactly nice or nothin'. But who am I to turn down an opportunity for a free steak dinner? He's hot, I mean I have standards."

The elevator doors parted onto the garage level of the hospital. Faith wheeled Angel through parked cars.

Sitting in the front seat of his dark green Mercury, Dignam was going over paper work on his lap top. His first fucking formal date in two months brought short by Faith's room-mate or something getting hit by a car. Apparently the guy was called Angel what kind of fucking homo name was that? Was the guy Italian or something? He looked like he could be.

"You a fuckin' Guinea?" Dignam asked Angel once he helped Faith seat Angel carefully in the back seat and stow the foldable wheel-chair on lease from the hospital in the trunk of his car.

"I'm Irish-American - like you in that one respect only." Angel could claim to be an American war hero in a way after his submarine escapades against Nazis. If only he could get a veterans allowance. What an asshole this Dignam guy was. If Angel was still a vampire he could be freaking this bastard out by not having his reflection show up in the driving mirror. Angel quickly checked his appearance. Oh he did not look good, and he didn't have vampire fast healing anymore, he'd be out of action for weeks.

Dignam drove Faith and Angel home. He checked out the sleeping arrangements with interest. From the blanket and pillow folded tidily on the sofa it seemed Faith told the truth, this Angel guy wasn't sleeping with her. Didn't mean she wasn't screwing him.

"You have my bed." Faith ordered Angel helping him into her bedroom. "You can't sleep on the sofa with a broken leg and arm, bud."

Angel was too groggy with pain medication to put up a feeble protest about it. He went to bed gratefully.

Faith was left alone in her living room with Dignam. They shared milky coffee and a brief sarcastic conversation before Dignam got paged to go back into his office for some development on a case he was working on. Dignam was convinced by this stage Faith wasn't banging her house guest.

"I can swing you a camp stretcher from my folks place and a comfy mattress. If yah going to be crashin' on yah sofa the next month." Dignam plunged his hands in his pants pockets ready to make his departure.

"Thanks." Faith guessed his unexpected generous offer came into the 'being surprised by a decent guy category', this kind of crap Robin always sprung on her while they were together. She saw Dignam to her front door.

"You get paged like that all the time?" Faith leaned on her doorframe, in a position that guaranteed to stick her breasts out further against the clinging black dress she wore.

"I'm incredibly fuckin' important and my input is needed into every major decision." Dignam confessed modestly. "You gonna kiss me good night or save it until I bone you?"

"What makes you think I'm gonna kiss you when we screw?" Faith threatened, slipping her arms around his neck and kissing him thoroughly.

Shit, it was all so fucking romantic.

God, it was all so damn depressing. Angel drank his beer with his uninjured left hand and watched Judge Judy on the television. He was mortal, anything could kill him - cars, Asian Bird flu, AIDS, he'd have to start using rubbers if he ever managed to have sex again. God he missed Nina and Cordelia today too. Not that he ever got to make love to Cordy.

Why was he human? This big thing he'd been working towards seemed pointless somehow. The fruits of victory bitter.

Faith came out of the bathroom with damp hair and make up applied, preparing to go off to a local cemetery and stake any emerging vampires. "You know drinkin' by yahself isn't healthy, and yah reminding me of 'Mommy'? And you now hafta worry about cirrhosis of the liver, pal."

"I don't want to talk about it." Angel sulked; he couldn't believe she was bringing up his solo drinking and depression. What else could he do or be, stuck inside the house, unemployed and crippled? He couldn't even draw.

"Well, maybe you should, yah all blue the whole time. I don't mean talk to me. I'm not a good listener to others woes." Faith admitted frankly. She was worried about him, she knew he brooded but this was ridiculous. "Look, you got that victim support group letter that offered free shrink visits because you were the bowlin' pin of a hit and run. Why not take 'em up?"


End file.
